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This article contains an analysis of the “ECC effect,” that is, the long-term change produced in Polish cities by participation in the competition for European Capital of Culture 2016, which lasted in Poland from 2007 to 2011. The authors concentrate on four basic subjects: (1) city identities; (2) city images; (3) the influence of new cultural institutions on the socio-cultural fabric of cities; and (4) the development of cultural policies and the Europeanization of Polish cities. Their findings are based on the research project “The ECC Effect: In Search of New Urban Narratives,” which was commissioned by the IMPART Festival Office and conducted in 2016 in 7 of the 11 candidate cities: Gdańsk, Katowice, Lublin, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, and Wrocław. The authors claim that the competition for European Capital of Culture indubitably initiated extensive transformation processes in Polish cities. It led to an improvement in their images more openness and internationalization, and to a redefinition of the role of culture in innovative development policies.

This article discusses the question of the reconstruction of social memory in Pol-ish cities. To illustrate this process the author decided to employ a comparative approach and analyzed this process in two Polish cities: Krakow and Wroclaw. The case selection was directed by their comparable population size and their importance as cultural and scientific centres. As far as differences between the three are concerned, their demographic reproduction patterns are substantially distinct. Krakow has preserved and reproduced its traditional bourgeois char-acter, whereas Wroclaw serves as a typical example of a post-migrant city with an entirely reconstructed identity because of the post-World War II popula-tion shifts. Despite their multiethnic composition and heritage, in the formative period for contemporary collective identities in the 19th century these cities built their identities solely with relation to symbolically homogenous contexts (Polish in Krakow and German in Wroclaw). These nationally homogeneous discourses were even strengthened during the postwar period and continued long after WWII. The breakthrough came with the collapse of communism. The inhabitants of the cities regained a possibility of social agency and by this to-ken a chance for building new identities. However, these processes did not start from scratch. They were determined by existing social and cultural structures which imprinted their particular patterns on their new developments.

Artykuł poświęcony jest analizie procesu formowania i przekształcania się polskich ruchów miejskich. Autor swoje wnioski wyprowadza na bazie projektu badawczego: "Miejskie ruchy społeczne w Polsce", w ramach którego zrealizował 30 wywiadów po-głębionych z liderami i liderkami ruchów miejskich z różnych miast. W swojej analizie autor wskazuje na dwie fazy rozwoju polskich ruchów miejskich. Pierwszą formacyjną z lat 2007-2014 zorientowaną głównie na kwestię tzw. wynajdywania miejskości oraz drugą po 2014 roku, kiedy to krystalizuje się tożsamość ruchu społecznego i zaczyna on nabierać charakteru politycznego. Thearticleanalyzestheprocessofformationandtransformationofurbansocial movements in Poland. Conclusions are based on the data collected in the course of the research project entitled "Urban Social Movements in Poland". Research material consists of 30 in-depth interviews with the leaders of urban movements in various cities and towns. The author analyzes two phases of the development of Polish urban social movements. The first phase (2007-2014) was foundational and aimed primarily at "inventing urbanity", while the second phase (starting after 2014) can be treated as a period when the social movements’ identity has crystallized and they have begun to take on a political character.

Artykuł poświęcony jest problematyce miasta i mieszczaństwa w polskiej kulturze. W pierwszej części autor, w odniesieniu do procesów długiego trwania, analizuje problem wyobcowania miasta i mieszczaństwa w polskiej kulturze i społeczeństwie. W drugiej części, w odniesieniu do badań własnych, prezentuje skutki szybkich i głębokich zmian zachodzących w ostatnich dwóch dekadach. Jedną z istotnych konsekwencji tych przeobrażeń jest tworzenie się tzw. nowego mieszczaństwa - głównie trzeciego pokolenia wielkich migracji powojennych, oraz beneficjentów rewolucji edukacyjnej i integracji europejskiej, którzy w istotny sposób dokonują rekonstrukcji tożsamości miejskich i pozycji miasta w polskiej kulturze. This article discusses the question of the role of a city and bourgeoisie in Polish culture. In the first part, the author analyses the process of alienation of bourgeoisie and urban culture in Polish national discourse. In the second part, the author refers to his own data on emergence of new forms of collective identities - the so-called 'new bourgeoisie' - formed by the recent social and cultural changes and its influence on Polish urban culture and city identities.